Brothers in Arms was recorded from November 1984 to March 1985 at AIR Studios on the island of Montserrat, a British overseas territory in the Caribbean.[8] The album was produced by Mark Knopfler and Neil Dorfsman. Knopfler became aware of Dorfsman through his 1981 recording of the Wanderlust album by jazz vibraphonist Mike Mainieri. In 1982, Knopfler asked Dorfsman to work with him on the 1982 Dire Straits album, Love over Gold, and his 1983 soundtrack album Local Hero.[9]Brothers in Arms was one of the first albums to be recorded on a Sony 24-track digital tape machine. The decision to move to digital recording came from Knopfler's constant striving for better sound quality. "One of the things that I totally respected about him," Dorfsman observed, "was his interest in technology as a means of improving his music. He was always willing to spend on high-quality equipment."[9]

Before arriving at Montserrat, Knopfler had written all the songs and rehearsed them with the band. The studio lineup included Knopfler (guitar), John Illsley (bass), Terry Williams (drums), Alan Clark (piano and Hammond B3), and Guy Fletcher, who was new to the band, playing a synth rig that consisted of a huge new Yamaha DX1, a couple of Roland keyboards, and a Synclavier. The studio itself was small, with a 20 x 25-foot recording space that offered virtually no isolation. "It was a good-sounding studio," Dorfsman later recalled, "but the main room itself was nothing to write home about. The sound of that studio was the desk," referring to the Neve 8078 board.[9]

Knopfler and Dorfsman utilised the limited space to best effect, placing the drum kit in the far left corner, facing the control room, miked with Sennheiser MD421s on the toms, an Electro-Voice RE20 and AKG D12 on the kick drum, a Shure SM57 and AKG C451 with a 20dB pad on the snare, 451s for overheads and the hi-hat, and Neumann U87s set back a little to capture "some kind of ambience".[9] They placed the piano in a tight booth in the far right corner of the studio, miked with AKG C414s. The Hammond B3 was placed nearby, with its Leslie speaker crammed into an airlock next to the control room. Illsley's bass amplifier was recorded inside a small vocal booth with a Neumann FET 47 and a DI unit. Knopfler's amplifiers were miked with 57s, 451s, and Neumann U67s. Fletcher's synths were placed in the control room.[9]

During the recording of "Money for Nothing", the signature sound of Knopfler's guitar may have been enhanced by a "happy accident" of microphone placement. Knopfler was using his Gibson Les Paul going through a Laney amplifier. While setting up the guitar amplifier microphones in an effort to get the "ZZ Top sound" that Knopfler was after, guitar tech Ron Eve, who was in the control room, heard the "amazing" sound before Dorfsman was finished arranging the mics. "One mic was pointing down at the floor," Dorfsman remembered, "another was not quite on the speaker, another was somewhere else, and it wasn't how I would want to set things up—it was probably just left from the night before, when I'd been preparing things for the next day and had not really finished the setup."[9] What they heard was exactly what ended up on the record; no additional processing or effects were used during the mix.[9]

According to a 2006 Sound on Sound magazine interview with the co-producer/engineer of the album, Neil Dorfsman, then-permanent drummer Terry Williams' studio performances were found to be lacking during the first month of the recording sessions. He was therefore quickly replaced by Omar Hakim, who happened to be Sting's studio and touring drummer at that time. Omar Hakim recorded the entire album's drum parts in two days and then left. On the finished product, Terry Williams' only drum contribution is the improvised crescendo at the beginning of "Money for Nothing". Everything else features Omar Hakim's drumming. Williams would be back in the band for the music videos and the tour.

Brothers in Arms was one of the first albums to be directed at the CD market, and was a full digital recording (DDD) at a time when most popular music was recorded on analog equipment. It was also released on vinyl (abridged to fit on one LP) and cassette. However, while it was listed as "DDD", producer Neil Dorfsman says the digital multitrack was mixed on an analog board with the resulting two track mix re-digitized via a Prism A/D converter and recorded on a DAT machine, so really the recording was DAD.

Brothers in Arms was the first album to sell one million copies in the CD format and to outsell its LP version. A Rykodisc employee would subsequently write, "[In 1985 we] were fighting to get our CDs manufactured because the entire worldwide manufacturing capacity was overwhelmed by demand for a single rock title (Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms)."[10]

It was remastered and released with the rest of the Dire Straits catalogue in 1996 for most of the world outside the United States and on 19 September 2000 in the United States. It was also released in XRCD2 format in 2000, then the 20th Anniversary Edition was issued in Super Audio CD format on 26 July 2005 (becoming the 3000th title for the SACD format) and DualDisc format with DVD-Audio 24 bit/96 kHz track on 16 August 2005, remixed in 5.1 by Chuck Ainlay[11] and winning a Grammy for Best Surround Sound Album at the 48th Grammy Awards ceremony.[12]

In 2006, a half-speed-mastered vinyl version of the album was issued. Mastered by Stan Ricker, this version consists of four sides on two 33 1/3 rpm discs, containing the full-length songs on vinyl for the first time.

In 2013, a hybrid SACD mastered from the original tapes was released by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab.

In 2014, a new master was released in Japan on SHM-SACD - it's made from the original tapes and contains the original LP length of the album: 47:44 min.

In 2015, the album re-entered the UK Album Charts at #8 following the record being made available at a discounted price on digital music retailers. The album has spent a total of 356 weeks on the UK Album Charts.[13]

"Money for Nothing" was one of the most played music videos on MTV during the era. It is one of only two Dire Straits songs on a studio album to not be solely credited to Mark Knopfler – Sting was given a co-writing credit.

"Walk of Life" was a number 2 hit for the band in the UK in early 1986 and a number 7 hit in the United States later that year. The song was nearly left off the album, but was included after the band out-voted producer Neil Dorfsman.

On the second side of the album, three songs ("Ride Across the River", "The Man's Too Strong" and "Brothers in Arms") are lyrically focused on militarism.

"Ride Across the River" uses immersive Latin American imagery, accompanied by synthesized pan flute, a reggae-influenced drum part and eerie background noises. "The Man's Too Strong" depicts the character of an ancient soldier (or war criminal) and his fear of showing feelings as a weakness. "Brothers in Arms" deals with the senselessness of war.

The guitar featured on the front of the album cover is Mark Knopfler's 1937 National Style 0 Resonator. The Style 0 line of guitars was introduced in 1930 and discontinued in 1941. The photographer was Deborah Feingold.[14] The same guitar was eventually used, with a similar color scheme, for the 1989 album The Booze Brothers by Brewers Droop. Although recorded in 1973, the album by Brewers Droop was not released until 1989, when it was discovered that the album had involved the renowned producer/rocker Dave Edmunds and the line-up had included Pick Withers and Mark Knopfler, later of Dire Straits.[15] The back cover features a painting of the same guitar, by German artist Thomas Steyer.

In his review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the album four out of five stars, crediting the international success of the album not only to the clever computer-animated video for "Money for Nothing", but also to Knopfler's "increased sense of pop songcraft".[16] The "indelible guitar riff" on "Money for Nothing", the catchy up-tempo boogie of "Walk of Life", the melodies of "So Far Away" and the Everly Brothers-style "Why Worry", the jazzy "Your Latest Trick", and the flinty "Ride Across the River"—Dire Straits had "never been so concise or pop-oriented, and it wore well on them." Erlewine concluded that the album remains "one of their most focused and accomplished albums, and in its succinct pop sense, it's distinctive within their catalog."[16]

In her review for Rolling Stone magazine, Debby Bull gave the album a mixed review, praising the "carefully crafted" effort, writing, "The record is beautifully produced, with Mark Knopfler's terrific guitar work catching the best light."[18] Although she found the lyrics literate, Bull noted that the scenarios "aren't as interesting as they used to be on records like Making Movies".[18] Despite the production values and notable contributions from guest artists like drummer Omar Hakim and the Brecker Brothers, Bull concluded that "the music lacks the ache that made Knopfler's recent soundtracks for Comfort and Joy and Cal so powerful."[18]

Robert Christgau gave the album a B– score, writing that "the first side moves with simple generosity, not a virtue one associates with this studio guitarist's ego trip. But it's too late for the old bluesboy to suck us into his ruminations of the perfidy of woman and the futility of political struggle, and 'Money for Nothing' is also a benchmark of pop hypocrisy."[17]

In 1986, Brothers in Arms won two Grammy Awards at the 28th Grammy Awards, and also won Best British Album at the 1987Brit Awards.[5][6] In 2000, Q magazine placed the album at number 51 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.[7] In 2003, the album ranked number 351 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".[19]

In November 2006, the results of a national poll conducted by the public of Australia revealed their top 100 favourite albums. Brothers in Arms came in at number 64 (see "My Favourite Album"). Brothers in Arms is ranked number 3 in the best albums of 1985 and number 31 in the best albums of the 1980s.

Looked at now with 20/20 vision of hindsight, the image on the sleeve of Brothers in Arms seems uncannily prophetic: that National steel guitar heading up into the clouds—a shiny 6 stringed rocket devoid of any obvious means of propulsion—describes, better than any words can, what happened to Dire Straits after the release of their 5th studio album. Up till the summer of 1985 success had, for them, come as a by-product of the music making process. They had never courted celebrity, chased fads, or played safe. Dire Straits had been loved and respected as one of the few bands to have maintained strong and credible links with the multifarious roots of rock and roll at a time—remember all the desperate pop posing of the early 80s?—when roots were emphatically not a fashionable place to be"[21]

All songs were written by Mark Knopfler, except where indicated. The track lengths on the LP version differ from the lengths on the CD and cassette versions, due to the limitations of the vinyl medium. The full tracks would not all fit on a single disc.

In Australia, the album was the biggest selling album in 1985 and the second best selling album in 1986. It topped the albums chart for 34 weeks (non-consecutive), and is the album with the second most weeks at number-one in ARIA Albums Chart.

In the Netherlands, the album broke the all-time record for the longest chart history, with 269 weeks (non-consecutive).

In the UK, the album reached number one on the UK Albums Chart, and remained on the chart for 228 weeks.[22]

In the United States, the album reached number one on the Billboard 200 and remained there for nine weeks.

^According to a 2006 Sound on Sound magazine interview with the co-producer/engineer of the album, Neil Dorfsman, then-permanent drummer Terry Williams' performance was found to be unsuitable for the desired sound of the album during the first month of the recording sessions. He was therefore temporarily replaced by one of the most popular jazz session drummers of the time, Omar Hakim, who recorded the whole album's drum parts in two days and then left. Terry Williams' only contribution is the improvised crescendo at the beginning of "Money for Nothing". Everything else features Hakim's drumming, although Williams would be back in the band for the music videos and the tour.[9]